Passing the Torch

Let's Cede the Power of Reality Creation to the Next Generation

Hey everybody. It’s been a harrowing few weeks.

From Biden’s impaired debate performance to the attempt on Donald Trump’s life and his defiant comeback, something about these phenomena is so…20th century. I feel like I am watching the two main ways that the last millennium’s white male archetype unwillingly disintegrates — either decay or defiance. There’s something “off” about the way 21st Century America is depending on the fate of these two men — as if we’re collectively denying the agency and readiness of the next generations. The necessary passing of the torch is not happening gracefully, or seemingly at all. 

We’re probably afraid. I think we sense that we’re moving into a more networked, participatory, and horizontal world that doesn’t require leaders and figureheads as we’ve traditionally understood them. The 20th century was dominated by men. Great men and terrible men. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao but also King, Ghandi and Mandela. No matter the movement, it always had a personality at the top. I think we’re moving toward something different, more distributed, less cultish, more fluid, less marching, more compassionate, less military.

But in our current, childlike mindset of political spectatorship, we behave as if only men from that past era are plausible as a President, even though we’ve actually transcended the need for such individualist leadership as a society. Of course, Biden’s diminishment actually does represent the surrender of sole authority to the team that has gathered to support his vision from behind the scenes (which is why people are so nervous about him), while Trump’s drive to more aggressive, monarchic power represents something much less trusting of others. And the conflict between the two approaches, both in our politics and around the world, is creating havoc.

My optimistic frame is that the violence and turmoil, the X/Twitter fascism and TikTok totalitarianism polluting our collective consciousness, may be less What Is Happening than reactions against what is unfolding. But boy, resistance to this future may just kill us all if we’re not careful. 

To the rescue come not just smart people, but weird ones. Resilient ones who can metabolize radical change. People capable of imagining and creating new approaches to engineering reality. This used to be the province of the counterculture — but magick has always had a darker, more power-obsessed side as well. For every Wiccan healer there were always a few salesmen reading Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich or Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, which applied the influence and self-hypnosis elements of magic to the acquisition of power and wealth. Donald Trump himself attended the sermons of Norman Vincent Peale as a child in church. He preached that we can think and speak things into reality.

Well, we can all play at that game. When reality becomes unhinged, it is up to good people everywhere to learn the techniques required to navigate it and bend the landscape to our collective will. It’s not about which old guy is the right guy to take the torch and lead us forward. It’s about forging the communities of solidarity and collective action required for us all to move forward together. We must seize the tools for this co-creation.

That’s part of why I’m so intrigued by the new project of my friend of thirty years, Richard Metzger. He is launching a new kind of documentary series that is intended as a spell in itself: a hyper-sigil to activate and unite the next generation of magical practitioners, while also simply planting a seed of fanciful empowerment in everyone who watches. You can check it out at right now at http://magickshow.net.

Richard is probably best known for founding Disinformation, the occult media and publishing company, hosting Disinfo.con in 2000, making and hosting the DisinformationTV series for Channel Four, and then creating the Dangerous Minds website.  

I think this modular documentary series will be the crowning achievement of Richard’s career, but also become part of a necessary re-skilling of popular culture at a pivotal moment in our development. No, not everyone needs to practice or even believe in magick. But these threads of culture are part of what give people the tools and creativity required to imagination better futures. In fact, I’ve been assisting so much with the project over the past few months, that Richard has dubbed me a “producer” of the show. 

I just recorded a new Team Human conversation with Richard about where we are, and what he’s doing. You can listen to that here.

But please also consider supporting and subscribing to the series. There are all sorts of great premiums on the Magick Show Kickstarter page, including a work of sigil art customized to your goals, from Grant Morrison!